


The Patience of Moonlight

by Khaleesi_Tess



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, JK Rowling is a TERF we don't stan her, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Multi, Mutual Pining, Not So Evil Voldemort (Harry Potter), Pureblood Culture (Harry Potter), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin Fluff, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Voldemort didn't go bad so there's no wizard war, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29035881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khaleesi_Tess/pseuds/Khaleesi_Tess
Summary: How would the lives of the Marauders have differed if they hadn't grown up at the beginning of the first wizarding war?What if Voldemort never existed because Tom Riddle got adopted by muggle parents and didn't turn into an evil crazy person?James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all meet on the train to Hogwarts first year and mischief ensues. There'll be slow burn wolfstar and Jily among other ships, and there'll still be plenty of muggle/pureblood angsty stuff, the Blacks and Malfoys etc. are all still elitist they just don't get their evil overlord so things don't go as far as a full blown war.Basically I wanted to read a marauders fic where their future suffering and death wasn't hanging over me the whole time so I decided to write one.New chapters weekly on Thursdays NZT (will edit if this changes)
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 15
Kudos: 31





	1. The Hogwarts Express

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written in a really long time. The idea just came to me suddenly after reading yet another sad marauders fic where they all have angsty war experiences.
> 
> I shall try to keep writing and updating frequently, but I am starting a new job soon so we'll see how it goes.

**September 1st 1971, Grimmauld Place, London**

Sirius Black stared at himself in the mirror, trying to keep the grin off his face. Today was the day. In just a couple of hours he would walk away from his mother and get on a train to a new life. And yes he’d also have to walk away from Regulus and that sucked, but Reg should be okay without Sirius there to get him into scrapes. He’d probably turn into the model Black son, with pristine manners and snooty turn of the head and all. Sirius just hoped he’d keep a little of his fiery spirit underneath.

But really, Reg would be fine and Sirius was getting to go to Hogwarts! He was beyond excited and could hardly keep from skipping and jumping except for fear that any bad behaviour today would tempt his mother to not let him go after all. So Sirius tucked his shirt in tidily, smoothed his hair down, and walked over to his bedroom door where his trunk was waiting. He picked up his trunk and turned for one last look around his room. It was perfectly tidy and boring, not a crease on the bed sheets or even a loose sock dangling out of his laundry basket. He knew his mother would check before they left the house and if anything was out of place he would be ‘reprimanded’ or worse.

With his trunk in hand Sirius stepped out onto the landing and headed down the stairs, Regulus slipping out of his room to join him quietly. On any other day the boys would race each other down, jumping to tap the noses of the stuffed house elf heads on their way past, but they both knew today was not any other day. Regulus had even helped Sirius clean the day before (perhaps for the first time ever), turning his bombsite of a bedroom into the strange place it was this morning. They walked quietly together now, like little soldiers marching in time with no expression on their faces. At the bottom of four flights of stairs they turned into the hall, Sirius put his trunk down neatly and they stood waiting for their mother to appear. They could hear her in the kitchen shouting orders at the house elf, and then walking up to the hall as if by magic knowing they were there (it probably was magic, she would be the kind of woman to set tracking spells in her own house).

Upon her arrival in the hall, Walburga Black looked her two sons over thoroughly. Luckily for them they had neither of them a hair out of place for her to find fault with. She stalked past them up the stairs to Sirius’ bedroom, showing no surprise at the lack of chaos. She had heard the boys cleaning the day before and it was only with slim hope that she looked for something they might have missed. She didn’t find anything and so headed back downstairs to the two boys waiting exactly where she had left them.

“Come” she said coldly and led them to the front door.

Outside a dark car was waiting, with a man in chauffeur's uniform holding the passenger door open for the three Blacks to enter. Once they were in and the man had loaded Sirius’ trunk they took off smoothly in the direction of King’s Cross station where Platform 9 ¾ and the Hogwarts Express waited. It took a while to get there as traffic in London was its usual terrible self and even magic could only help so much. Walburga spent the entire 45 minute trip lecturing Sirius on how he was to behave on the train and once he got to Hogwarts, and that he must be sure to give up his nasty mischievous habits or he would bring shame on the family and he wouldn’t like the consequences. Sirius listened carefully, making a list in his head of all the things he wasn’t supposed to do (and therefore all the things he _must_ do as soon as possible).

At last the car pulled to a stop in front of a train station full of muggles and the Blacks got out and walked toward the barrier leading to platform 9 ¾. As befitted her pure blood snobbishness, Walburga didn’t change pace as the barrier neared, walking calmly through as though there was nothing there and no one was watching. Sirius and Regulus hurried after her on their shorter legs, Sirius pulling his trunk behind him. And then suddenly they were there, looking at the gleaming scarlet train and the crowds of children and families with trunks and cages holding owls and cats, and some were leaning broomsticks over their shoulders. Behind their mother’s back Regulus reached out and quickly squeezed Sirius’ hand before letting go, excitement subtly gleaming in both their eyes though they still hid smiles in stony faces. Walburga led them to a carriage door and then stopped, staring down at Sirius with something strange in her eyes that almost looked like affection.

“Right, have a good year and remember everything I’ve told you. Your cousins will be able to answer any questions you might have and keep out of trouble and obey your teachers and don’t fraternise with ‘that sort’” - she paused to glare at a clearly muggle family hugging their redheaded daughter goodbye a short way down the train - “Well, we’ll see you at Christmas. Come along Regulus.”

Walburga then did the most bizarre thing Sirius had ever experienced. She reached out and patted him on the shoulder. Sirius decided to risk her good mood and stepped toward Regulus, his arms open for a hug, but caught her eye and changed it to a handshake at the last second. Reg gave him a small little smile before turning and following his mother away down the platform. Sirius hurried to heave his trunk onto the train and get out of sight, just in case his mother changed her mind at the last minute. He would not let her find him now that he was out of her grasp.

Sirius wandered down the train, which was still fairly empty as many students were engaging in prolonged affectionate goodbyes on the platform. He wanted to be careful not to end up in a compartment with any of his numerous Slytherin cousins. That would not go well with his plans for rebellion. As he wandered, compartments slowly filled as more and more students got on board. Towards the back of the train Sirius found a likely looking compartment and let himself in. There were two boys he didn’t recognise sitting near the door chatting amiably, and over by the window sat the redheaded muggle girl his mother had glared at on the platform.

_“Not a muggle - a witch”_ Sirius corrected himself mentally. He would not let himself think the way his mother wanted, he would not! So Sirius entered the compartment with a friendly grin on his face, “room for one more?” he asked the two boys who both looked up in surprise.

“Sure!” said the boy with unruly black hair and glasses, while the blonde, slightly chubby boy moved down to make room. “I’m James, and this is Peter.”

“Sirius” he replied, leaving out his last name just as they had and glad to do so. As he settled into his seat James returned to the conversation about quidditch teams, telling Sirius his favourite and asking what his was.

***

**September 1st 1971, Potter Manor, Shropshire**

“We’re going to be late!” Effie Potter yelled up the stairs at her son. James was dashing madly around his bedroom throwing stuff into his trunk haphazardly. Somehow he’d forgotten to pack his trunk for an entire week straight and now it was the morning he was supposed to catch the Hogwarts Express and he couldn’t possibly put it off any longer. Finally he threw some textbook or other in and slammed the lid shut deciding anything he’d missed would just have to stay behind or get sent on by owl. James dragged his trunk to the top of the stairs, double checked the clasps, then gave it a push to send it bumping and sliding down toward his mum who was glaring at him in the hall. He followed his trunk by hopping up on the bannister and zooming down it like a slide. At the end he leaped down perfectly to land standing next to his trunk with a massive cheeky grin on his face. He’d perfected the bannister slide a few years ago but it still got him a good telling off from his mum every time. Today however she didn’t have time to properly yell at him as they really were running late so she just levitated his trunk and dragged him out the door to where James’ dad Monty was waiting holding a muggle rugby ball and frantically waving them over. 

“Come on come on, the portkey’s about to go and if we mess this up I’ll never get another permit from work.” James and his mum made it just in time and the ball glowed blue as they got their hands to it, Effie’s other hand firmly holding the trunk.

With a thud the Potters landed in an alleyway beside Wolverhampton train station. Now decidedly back on schedule, Effie calmly led the way toward the station with her husband and son following behind. Monty pulled the trunk and James walked beside him before stopping with a sudden cry “I forgot Weebles!” his parents both looked at him with almost identical exasperated expressions on their faces.

“How do you manage to forget an entire owl James?” his dad asked, then turned to Effie and added “and how did you not notice when you left the house?”

Effie just sighed in response then clearly made a decision because her expression returned to business-like calm. “We will send Weebles along just as soon as we get home, she’ll probably even beat the train and she’ll be able to bring all the other things I’m sure to discover that you’ve forgotten once I see your room. Though she may need a little help from Evenstar if it’s as many things as I’m beginning to fear.”

Monty laughed and James pouted which just made both his parents laugh. “Don’t worry dear, it’ll all be absolutely fine” his mum soothed, starting to walk towards the station again, James and Monty following. When they got inside, Effie looked all around before turning to Monty and asking “can you see the entrance? I just can’t remember what it looks like here.”

Monty pointed to a boarded up brick archway that used to lead to a set of bathrooms, “I think that’s it over there, better not run at it though just in case I’m wrong.” The family headed off in the direction Monty had pointed and sure enough when they gently tried to lean against the archway they slid right through and ended up on Platform 9 ¾.

James started hopping up and down he was so excited. He could see the Hogwarts Express, shiny and red and puffing steam into the crowd. He ran ahead of his parents towards the nearest door, which was close to the end of the train. As he turned around to wait for them to catch up he could see all the other families milling around, and behind them the many archways all leading to different muggle train stations. Off in the distance near the front of the train was the biggest archway, leading to Kings Cross in London, the original entrance to the platform but no longer the only one as parents up and down the country had complained to the ministry about the distance they had to travel to get their children to London each September. James’ Dad had been part of the team that had planned and created the 30 new entrances to Platform 9 ¾ that were now scattered all around the UK and Ireland. People still had to travel, but now someone who lived in Scotland didn’t have to go all the way down to London just to come all the way back on the train.

James’ parents caught up to him, and helped him get his trunk onto the train and tucked into an empty compartment, then they stepped off to say goodbye. Effie and Monty both looked a little teary as they crushed James into the middle of a threeway hug, but they were smiling as they let him go.

“Please try to rein in your wild behaviour James dear, and remember that Aunty Minnie doesn’t tolerate any cheekiness from her students even if she has tolerated _your_ mischief up till now,” his mother said.

“Can I have a quick word before you go?” Monty asked James suddenly and pulled him away from his mother, out of earshot. James looked up at his dad with a query in his eyes as he watched him pull something out of his coat. It was a soft squishy looking paper package. “Don’t open it till you get to your dorm tonight, and make sure there are no prefects or teachers around,” Monty cautioned.

“What is it Dad?”

“It’s a family heirloom, you’ll know what when you open it. Now hurry or the train will be gone!” His dad pushed him forward with one last ruffle of his hair and James jumped up into the train, turning around to wave madly at his parents while the train engine started to get louder and louder and all around him students ran for the train doors and parents yelled goodbyes and last minute reminders.

As the train started to leave the station James headed along to the compartment where his trunk was and found it was no longer empty. There was a girl sitting looking out the window and a boy with blonde hair and chubby cheeks. The girl clearly didn’t want to talk as she kept looking out the window when James entered, but the boy looked friendly if a little shy so James sat down opposite him and introduced himself, “Hi, I’m James and my Quidditch team is the Tutshill Tornados, what’s yours?”

The boy looked a little taken aback at his method of greeting, but after a moment he managed to answer “Wimbourne Wasps I guess. I’m Peter by the way.”

“Good choice Peter” James said and launched into a slightly one sided conversation about the most recent times the Wasps and Tornados had played against each other and who had won each match and why. A few minutes later the door opened and a very prim and proper boy with perfectly combed shoulder length black hair and a collared shirt buttoned up all the way _and_ tucked into his trousers walked in.

“Room for one more?” he asked with a confident grin that made James smile instinctively.

“Sure” he said and the boy sat down next to Peter (as the quiet girl was still on James’ side ignoring them all). “I’m James and this is Peter,” James said then gave the boy just enough time to reply “Sirius” before launching into his routine, “My Quidditch team is the Tutshill Tornados, what’s yours?”

“Ah well let’s see, if we went by location they’d be the Wimbourne Wasps but my father supports them so I’ve never liked them much. Currently I’m supporting the Kenmure Kestrels who look set to beat the Wasps to a pulp in their next game.”

***

**September 1st 1971, Pettigrew Household, Bournemouth**

To say Peter Pettigrew was nervous about going to Hogwarts would be an understatement. He was actually shaking as he struggled to do up the clasps on his trunk and he’d spilled his breakfast all over himself twice somehow. But his mother just kindly cleaned him up each time and when she saw him struggle with his trunk she came over and clicked it shut with a flick of her wand. Maybe this was why Peter was so nervous. He’d always been clumsy and never very good at anything much, so his parents had gotten into the habit of doing pretty much everything for him which just made him feel a bit more incompetent each day. He was so worried about what would happen once he got to Hogwarts and they weren’t there to look after him anymore. He knew that soon he would start learning magic and if he was any good he would start being able to do these little things for himself. But he had the great fear that he would be terrible and clumsy at magic just as he was terrible and clumsy at everything else, and everyone at school would laugh at him and tease him and he’d just be useless, clumsy Peter forever.

Once his trunk was shut, his mother took his hand in one of hers and the trunk in the other and apparated them to the Bournemouth train station. Peter hated apparition but he didn’t complain as it was the easiest quickest way and his mother liked to be efficient. They walked into the train station and Peter stayed close to his mother, holding her hand tightly so he wouldn’t lose her in the surprisingly packed crowd. They walked along, till they found a blank stretch of wall that had a large swirly 9 graffitied on it. Fiona Pettigrew looked around carefully to make sure no one was watching then stepped through pulling her son along with her onto Platform 9 ¾. Peter let his mother lead him along toward a carriage that hadn’t yet gotten too full, looking around at all the families saying their goodbyes. He saw a redheaded girl saying a tearful but calm goodbye to her clearly muggle parents and sister, and a little further down the platform there was a boy with scruffy black hair whose parents were squishing him between them in a big hug. Peter’s mother pulled him onto the train, in much the same way she heaved his trunk on, leading him into an empty compartment where she set his trunk in the luggage rack then sat him down in a seat near the door.

“Right” Fiona said, bending down so she was at eye level with her son, “You be good now and remember, if you’re friendly to people they will want to help you so be nice to everyone you meet and especially to teachers.”

“Okay” Peter mumbled.

“I love you dear” Fiona said then leant forward and kissed Peter on the cheek before turning and leaving the compartment door open behind her as she exited.

Peter thought briefly about standing up and shutting the door so he didn’t look quite so desperate for company, but he was too slow as a moment later the redheaded girl he had noticed on the platform stepped inside. Peter smiled at her just as his mother had taught him, but she didn’t even look at him as she hurried to the window to wave at her parents. She looked like she might still be crying, which terrified Peter so he sat quietly in his seat and ignored her. Luckily it wasn’t long before someone else came into the compartment, the boy with the huggy parents. Peter smiled at him and this time it worked. The boy, James, introduced himself and started talking rapid fire about quidditch. Peter knew enough about quidditch that he could just about keep up and say one or two things whenever James paused for breath, but mostly he just listened and smiled. It seemed like he’d managed to make a friend, and it hadn’t been nearly as scary as he thought it might be.

Just as Peter was beginning to feel like maybe things were all going to be okay this year after all, the most cool and collected boy he had ever seen casually opened the compartment door and asked, “room for one more?” and since James replied “Sure!” enthusiastically Peter felt he had better move down and make some room. After introductions James began the quidditch tirade again and Sirius, as the other boy was called, had much more to say than Peter could ever have come up with. It turned out he didn’t like the team Peter had picked as his because it was the one his father supported and clearly he had something against his father, though he didn’t say what. This made James laugh and he told Peter there was going to be contention in the compartment if the two boys couldn’t agree to be friends despite their quidditch ties. Peter hurriedly said he could pick a new team to support, how about James’ team, could he tell him more about them? Sirius gave Peter a funny look but didn’t say anything and went back to animatedly discussing the different strengths and weaknesses of various teams with James. James would occasionally pull Peter into the conversation for a moment or two but mostly Peter was relegated to spectator as he watched Sirius and James quickly becoming the very best of friends. Peter sat and watched the boys and swore to himself that somehow he would manage to hold onto them, if he could just end up in the same house.

***

**September 1st 1971, Evans family home, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire**

It was early in the morning when Lily Evans and her family bundled into their car to drive down to Wolverhampton so that Lily could catch a magical train that would take her to an actual school for magic. They were all still reeling a little from the visit a month ago from Professor Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who had explained to Lily and her parents that she was a witch and that she would need to attend this school to learn how to control her powers. That’s right, somehow unbelievably all the strange little tricks Lily had been finding herself able to do were actually magic. Of course Lily had already known about witches and wizards for a little while before Professor McGonagall’s visit but she didn’t mention this to her parents. She wasn’t sure they would approve of her friendship with Severus Snape. His parents were decidedly not ‘good people’ as her father would say. Sev’s dad was a drunk and his mum was a bit weird too, though that might just be because she was a witch who had married what Severus called a ‘muggle’. Sev said it didn’t make a difference that Lily was muggleborn but she wasn’t so sure she believed him. She had read all her textbooks and few others that she’d gotten to learn more about the magical world, and she asked Sev every question she could think of, but she was still sure she didn’t know nearly as much as kids who had grown up with magical parents. Since there was nothing Lily could do to change this though she accepted her situation and tried not to think about it anymore.

That was the kind of girl Lily was. She was very matter of fact and once she had made a decision about something she didn’t waste anymore time worrying about it. This was perhaps why she was such good friends with Severus after only knowing him a few weeks, she had accepted that he was going to be her friend because they were going to school together and so he was her friend. That was that and no one and nothing would change her mind - not his old hand-me-down clothes, not his questionable parents, not the way he was sometimes mean to Petunia (this bothered Lily and she always told Sev so, but she didn’t stop being his friend).

Severus had promised Lily they would meet on the train, though he was going to the station with his mother the magical way, while Lily and her family would be driving down to Wolverhampton where they would be meeting someone from the Ministry of Magic who would show them how to get onto the platform. Lily’s parents, George and Mary, were quite excited to get to see more magical people and they were so proud of Lily that they didn’t mind in the least getting up early and driving her down. Lily’s older sister Petunia was another matter entirely. Petunia was not a witch, a fact she pretended didn’t bother her but which Lily knew was in fact a bit of a sore point. Severus had found a letter from the headmaster of Hogwarts telling her that he was sorry but she couldn’t come to school with her sister. Lily hoped she’d get a chance to tell Petunia she was sorry before she got on the train, but she didn’t dare try while in the car with her parents.

They drove for around an hour till finally the country roads became busier and more suburban and then they were suddenly driving into central Wolverhampton and there was the train station right in front of them and a man in a black suit was clearly waiting to meet them as they got out of their car. Lily’s dad was pulling her trunk along and Lily was holding a pet carrier with her precious kitten Bluebell tucked inside. The man was brusque and after ensuring they were indeed the Evans family he led them quickly into the station and pointed them to a boarded up archway where he explained they would all be able to walk through and reach the train platform. He told Lily’s parents to make sure they left the platform through the Wolverhampton exit or they’d end up in a completely different part of the country. George stared at the man in wonder when he said that but the man didn’t seem to notice and was already walking away from them and out the station doors.

Lily led them through the archway and sure enough they ended up sliding through the seemingly solid wall into another place where there were hundreds of people milling around as students made their way onto an amazing scarlet steam engine. Lily could hardly believe her eyes, even though she’d read all about the magical train platform that could be entered from different locations all around England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. She looked for Severus in the crowd but couldn’t see him so she just had to hope he would find her on the train. She tried to talk to Petunia but it didn’t go well and then her parents were wishing her a happy term and saying they would see her at Christmas and she was rushing onto the train and waving through a window as they disappeared from sight, the train puffing its way out of the station. Lily barely realised that there was a boy sitting in the compartment with her while she cried about Petunia, until another much louder boy showed up and then another and they just kept talking and talking about quidditch. Lily knew what quidditch was as she had read a book about it, but she didn’t think it was any more interesting than any other sport so she didn’t understand what these boys found so thrilling about dissecting every second of some game they hadn’t even seen but had only heard the commentary to on their wizarding wireless (wizards apparently had magic radio but not magic television).

After a little while another boy joined them, though it looked to Lily like they actually just pulled him in from the corridor as he was walking past and didn’t give him any choice. He seemed happy enough though and talked quietly with a Welsh accent that somehow the two loud ones stopped to listen to whenever he opened his mouth. It was as if he had some magnetism that made them want to catch every word he uttered. Lily thought maybe if the loud boys weren’t there she would have said hello to the Welsh one, but as it was she sat and stared out the window and waited for Severus to turn up so she could be grumpy with him about Petunia (and then forgive him, she’d already planned this out).

It was just a few minutes later when Severus finally found Lily. She told him about her conversation with Petunia, but forgave him very quickly and they got to talking about Hogwarts and what it would be like. When Severus said “You’d better be in Slytherin” the other boys turned around in the compartment and the scruffy haired loud one made a joke about Slytherin, while the long haired loud one said his whole family had been in Slytherin but he wasn’t planning on it if he could do anything about it. Lily and Severus left the compartment quite quickly because the boys turned rather mean. They even teased Severus about his name which Lily thought was just horrible, it wasn’t like he’d chosen it himself after all.

***

**September 1st 1971, Lupin Cottage, North Stack, Holyhead, Wales**

It had taken a lot of convincing from Albus Dumbledore for Lyall and Hope Lupin to agree that their son Remus could attend Hogwarts. He was after all a dangerous werewolf and Hogwarts was a castle full of vulnerable young children who would be put in danger every full moon. But Professor Dumbledore had explained how they had set up a secure location away from the school where Remus would be able to complete his transformation in secret every month, and that all the teachers had agreed to help hide his condition from the students. Lyall had been harder to convince than Hope but eventually his wife won him around to the idea and they had told Remus he was going to go to Hogwarts, where he would meet other children his age and learn about magic.

Remus wasn’t sure how to feel about going to Hogwarts. On one hand it was so exciting he could hardly believe it, he would get to leave Lupin Cottage for the first time since before ‘that night’ and he could make friends and learn how to use his magic properly. But on the other hand it was terrifying, he would have to leave Lupin Cottage and interact with strangers. He had no idea how to talk to other children and he was scared at the idea of a giant castle he would almost certainly get lost in. His mum soothed his worries though, and she even helped him practice having conversations in preparation, and they watched muggle TV shows about kids together. His dad did other things to help him prepare, such as going out one day and returning with armfulls of books and boxes of school supplies. He even bought an owl for Remus so he could write to them whenever he wanted.

One evening Lyall sat Remus down and explained to him the things he would need to be careful about in order to hide his condition. “You’ll need to act a bit more clumsy and make noise when you walk so people don’t notice your wolf stealth, and make sure you don’t let on how good your senses are. Normal people can’t hear a quiet conversation going on on the other side of a large room, and being able to tell who has entered a room just from their scent isn’t normal either so don’t let on about that. And you must always control your temper, don’t let people see the wolf come into your eyes, and don’t ever growl or snarl. You must remember all these things if you want to stay at school, for once someone finds out they will be sure to be terrified of you and tell everyone and then Dumbledore will have to send you home.”

Remus nodded solemnly and made careful note of all the things he had to remember. He started whispering them to himself before going to sleep every night so he would never forget. It became a little mantra “ _Don’t walk too quietly, don’t listen too far, don’t smell too much, don’t ever get angry, never growl, never snarl, hide, hide, hide_.”

But now September 1st had arrived and it was time for Remus to go to Hogwarts. Luckily the full moon had been a week ago so Remus was well recovered and would have plenty of time to settle in at school before the next one. The Lupins left their cliffside cottage around 9.30 in the morning, prepared for the hour long walk to Holyhead, where there was a portal to Platform 9 ¾ at the Stella Line train station. They walked because side-along apparition was painful for Remus and they didn’t own a car. It was lucky that Holyhead was so close to their cottage and that one of the Platform 9 ¾ portals was there, or it would have been much harder to get Remus to school.

It ended up taking nearly an hour and a half by the time they finally made it to the train station as none of them had thought to consider that Remus would get tired on such a long walk when he’d barely left their cottage before. They finally made it though and with just 5 minutes to spare Remus and his parents were hurrying through the barrier to get to Platform 9 ¾ and rushing him to the train. Lyall lifted his trunk onto the train while Hope gave him one last hug and then Remus was climbing up just as the train whistle blew and it started to chug out of the platform. By the time he had turned around to wave his parents were out of sight. Remus tried not to cry as he picked up one end of his trunk and began to make his way down the carriage looking for somewhere to sit. Even though Remus and his mum had practiced conversations and they had watched all that television he was suddenly very nervous about talking to other students, so he desperately looked for a compartment that was either empty or the people inside weren’t talking. Every window he peered through showed students laughing and chatting though so he kept walking and kept looking. He made it all the way to the back end of the train without finding anywhere and so he turned around to walk back again, this time just looking for a compartment that was at least a little quiet.

Suddenly a door beside him flew open and a beautiful boy with long black hair all but lept in front of him and pulled him into the carriage.

“Why don’t you sit with us?” the boy asked.

Remus stared at him in surprise for a few seconds (none of his practice had prepared him for this), finally managing to open his mouth and say quietly “thanks. I was late to the train and all the compartments looked full.”

Another boy had grabbed Remus’ trunk and was squishing it into the luggage rack where four other trunks already sat. The compartment was rather full now, with three boys sitting by the door and one girl steadfastly ignoring them all over by the window. The boys all introduced themselves, the beautiful boy was called Sirius and the other two were James and Peter. Peter was quiet with blonde hair and James was loud with glasses and wild black hair that looked as though it were somehow alive all on its own. Remus wasn’t sure quite how it happened but somehow this strange mix of boys made him feel relaxed and comfortable in a way he hadn’t for weeks now. They talked about quidditch, were shocked to hear that Remus lived so close to Holyhead but had never been to a game, but didn’t push it too far, and every time Remus opened his mouth Sirius and James would stop their shouting and wait for him to talk. They didn’t seem to notice that Peter hadn’t gotten a word in edgeways in a long time, but he looked like he was okay with just listening. Remus thought this was a bit strange, but he really didn’t know much about conversations after all so he didn’t let himself worry about it.

It wasn’t long before the girl left the compartment. A boy who clearly already knew her had come in and after a short conversation they left, probably because James and Sirius decided to tease the boy and make fun of him for wanting to be in Slytherin. Remus stayed quiet for a while after they left thinking about Hogwarts houses and where he might end up. Slytherin was the house for dark wizards, and he was a werewolf - a dark creature by nature according to everything he’d managed to read. But he didn’t feel dark when it wasn’t the full moon, and his mum always called him her brave boy for handling so much pain every month. He liked the idea of Gryffindor, especially since James was so sure he’d end up there and Sirius clearly wanted to be in Gryffindor too, though part of that was perhaps because of his family being so anti Gryffindor. Eventually Remus decided that the best thing would be if he ended up in the same house as Sirius, so he made a plan to wait and see where the sorting hat sent Sirius and then focus all his thoughts on that house when he put the hat on. They had learnt each other’s last names by this point so he knew that Black would get called before Lupin.

Remus wasn’t entirely sure what it was that made him so sure he should stick to Sirius like glue. Perhaps it was because Sirius was the one who had pulled him into the compartment, but Remus thought it was more than that. Sirius smelt right, and the wolf in Remus’ head certainly liked him. There was something there that Remus didn’t fully understand but he thought it might be magic pulling them together. Sirius seemed to feel something too because he kept glancing over at Remus and would ask him a question whenever Remus hadn’t spoken for a little bit.

The train ride went on like this for the whole day, with a break in the middle to gorge on sweets from the trolley. Hope had slipped a few sickles into Remus’ pocket so he could stock up on chocolate for the next moon, but it was hard not to just eat it all with his friends. He was pretty sure they were friends now. Towards the end of the day they changed into school robes. Remus’ looked decidedly more worn out than the others but they didn’t seem to notice. Sirius and James started a competition for who could look more scruffy in their robes, but James won easily because even though Sirius was happy to mess his robes up he would never beat James for crazy hair. Finally the train began to slow and looking out the window they could see village lights and a train station coming into view. They were arriving!


	2. Squids and Owls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An eventful boat ride is followed by life changing decisions made by a hat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eep, I kinda can't believe people are actually reading this! I hope you like this chapter.

**Remus**

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter made their way off the train amidst the crowds of students. Some were heading towards rows of carriages, but off to one side a ridiculously tall man was calling all the first years to come over to him. James led the way over, the others following behind. The man introduced himself as Hagrid and said he was the Hogwarts gamekeeper. Once all the other first years had come over, including Severus and the redhead girl from earlier, Hagrid led them down a narrow path leading to the lakeshore where boats waited. The students filed into them. The four boys got one to themselves and Sirius and James began rocking it back and forth and splashing the water while Peter squirmed. Remus just rolled his eyes, a sudden flash of what his future with these boys as friends might look like crossing his mind. All the other students got into their boats, no one acting remotely silly, and after a moment they floated out across the lake.

“You’re going to get us tipped in” Peter moaned as Sirius gave his side of the boat an extra vigorous push that caused a small wave of water to wash in.

“Challenge accepted!” crowed James, and pushed his side harder making Sirius laugh. The two boys pushed and wobbled and eventually succeeded in dumping the four of them into the icy water, though by that point they were already soaked from all the splashing. Remus was a strong swimmer having grown up on the Welsh coast, but the others looked like they’d never swum a day in their life. Peter screamed and flailed and slipped below the water only to be lifted out and plopped back into the boat which seemed to have righted itself. James and Sirius were too busy floundering on their own to see what happened to Peter and so were utterly shocked when they too were returned from the water to their boat. Remus, who was treading water and watching, saw the tentacles, and below them through the dark murky water his wolf eyes could make out the shape of a giant creature. The creature was looking at Remus and reaching a tentacle towards him to help but he shook his head at it and it retreated. He easily vaulted from the water back into the boat before realising that was probably a wolf trick and looking at the other boys in a panic.

He needn’t have worried though, as Sirius’ next words were “What just happened to us? Did you guys feel that weird thing that pushed us all back in?”

“I don’t know what it was but it was horrible and slimy,” James shuddered. Peter just whimpered quietly.

“Don’t be so mean,” Remus chided. “You’ll hurt the poor squid’s feelings, and after it saved us all too.”

“Squid?” Sirius cried. “You saw it?”

“Well I saw the tentacles, and my dad told me there was one in the lake so that’s what it must have been.”

“Wow!” breathed James.

And then suddenly the boats were slowing and they all looked up to see an enormous castle looming above them. The other students, who had all been watching the mayhem happening in their boat were turning to look too, and gasps could be heard all around. It was a spectacular sight, and they all stared for a good moment before Hagrid was calling them out of the boats. He seemed to have decided to just ignore the boys and their silliness though he did look them over with a little concern as they all started to shiver (Remus only started shivering once he noticed Sirius’ teeth chattering and realised he should be feeling cold).

Pretty quickly they were in front of the castle, huge doors open wide to let them into the entrance hall and a tall, slightly hawklike woman standing in the middle of the doorway looking out at them all. She had a severe expression on her face, but for some reason James broke into a giant smile and cried “Aunty Minnie! We fell in the lake, look I’m soaked.”

“James Potter, you will address me as Professor McGonagall if you do not want detention on your first day of school! And I very much doubt there was anything accidental in your ‘fall’ in the lake.” She replied in a calm haughty voice, but she did wave her wand and cast a drying charm over the four boys so they could stop shivering. “Now come along all of you.” And she turned and led the first years into the castle.

“Aunty Minnie?” Sirius asked James in a whisper.

James ducked his head as he replied, “I forgot I’m not allowed to call her that anymore. She’s a friend of my parents.”

“I’m calling her Minnie every chance I get” Sirius said with a sneaky grin spreading on his face. Their conversation had to end though as they stopped in front of another large set of doors, these ones closed.

“Through these doors your classmates and teachers wait,” Professor McGonagall told them. “You will form an orderly line and follow me in. Once we reach the front of the hall you will stand and await your turn to be sorted.” She turned, opened the door, and walked into a suddenly hushed room. Hundreds of eyes watched as the group walked in, trying to keep in a tidy line, though not exactly succeeding. Remus grabbed Peter’s arm as he noticed him getting left behind, the boy was one of their group after all even if he didn’t talk as much as the others. After what felt like the longest walk ever they made it to the front of the hall where a table of teachers looked down at them, including Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster, who gave Remus a small wink before looking away to the other students. In front of the teachers’ table a hat sat on a stool. When Professor McGonagall moved to stand beside it, the whole hall silenced, the last few whispered conversations ending. And suddenly the hat was singing in a gruff voice, telling them all about the four houses, how Gryffindors were brave and chivalrous, Slytherins were cunning and insightful, Ravenclaws were creative and intelligent, and Hufflepuffs were diligent and loyal.

After the hat had finished its song, Professor McGonagall began calling out names. Remus had been right that it would be in alphabetical order so it wasn’t long before she called “Black, Sirius” and Sirius walked up, looking nervous for the first time that day. James gave him a thumbs up and then promptly crossed his fingers. Remus didn’t cross his fingers but he did hope very hard that Sirius got the house he wanted. A few moments later the hat cried out “Gryffindor!” and there was a collective gasp from the hall. Clearly it was known that if your name was Black you would be in Slytherin. The table under red and gold banners soon started clapping and cheering though and Sirius walked over to sit down, looking a mix of terrified and thrilled.

Remus had a while to wait before he got his turn, but finally it came around. “Lupin, Remus” was called and he walked up, sat down on the stool and began to think  _ “Brave, Gryffindor, Brave, Gryffindor, Brave, Gryffindor.” _ until suddenly it occurred to him that the hat might notice he was a werewolf and his thoughts uncontrollably slipped into panic  _ “hide. Hide. Hide. Hide. Please don’t tell anyone, I won’t hurt them I promise. Hide. Hide. Hide.” _

_ “Well now, calm down my little wolf” _ a voice spoke softly right in his ear,  _ “I had been told to expect you, but that hardly matters as I can see for myself that you’re not the monster people might think. It’s quite clear to me that your mother is right, you are certainly more brave than monstrous.”  _ and then that hat cried aloud “Gryffindor!” and Remus was walking to the table in a daze. He felt Sirius clapping him on the back and looked up to smile at him.

“We made it. I’m glad we’re in the same house” Remus said quietly, not sure if Sirius would hear him, and also not entirely sure if he wanted him to.

But Sirius soothed his nerves by replying in a similarly quiet voice, “me too. It would have been awful to be in different houses.” Then louder he said, “Here comes Peter!” And sure enough Peter was walking over to the table at that very moment. “Now we just need James and the gang will be back together again.” James obliged just a few minutes later, sauntering over to them with a cocky grin on his face.

Shortly after that the sorting was wrapped up, the redhead, Lily Evans, and her friend Severus not so lucky as the boys, as he got his desired Slytherin and she, in perhaps a slightly ironic twist, had already been sorted into Gryffindor. Remus and his friends (he really could call them that now) listened as Professor Dumbledore stood and welcomed the new students and made a few notices before officially starting the feast. As food suddenly covered the tables Remus was relieved to notice there wasn’t a speck of silver in evidence on the table. The trays were gold and all the utensils were stainless steel. He didn’t know if this had been done for him or was just a lucky coincidence but either way he was just happy not to be at risk of burns and exposure while eating his dinner.

The boys talked only a little as they ate their fill, though Remus did notice that James and Sirius seemed to know how to use their cutlery and keep the food in their mouths whereas Peter was quite hopeless and had drips of sauce on his robes in no time at all. Remus made himself eat a variety of food and not just the rare steak his inner wolf wanted. At dessert he had no such qualms and took a healthy portion of chocolate pudding, alongside a large slice of chocolate cake and two scoops of chocolate ice cream. There were even little after dinner mints that he managed to smuggle into his pockets for later. He did get a few sidelong looks at the amount of dessert he was eating, and a prefect down the table told him to be careful not to make himself sick. But he just felt good when he put the last mouthful in his mouth just in time as the plates magically cleaned themselves.

  
  


**Sirius**

Somehow he’d actually done it. He’d gotten himself sorted into Gryffindor, the hat had even seemed happy to do it. And after a fabulous dinner he was now walking through the corridors of Hogwarts heading up to the towers not down to the dungeons, and walking beside him were his three new friends James, Peter and Remus. He felt warm and happy for the first time he could remember. As they walked up staircase after staircase the prefect leading them pointed out some of the features of the castle, such as which staircases moved, and tapestries that hid short cuts, and how some paintings were good to ask for directions and others would send you in completely the opposite direction.

They reached a portrait of a woman in a lilac dress who was clearly waiting for them. The prefect told them she was guarding the entrance to Gryffindor tower and only opened when the password was uttered, “for now it's ‘Flimblegimble’ but it will change throughout the year so pay attention to the notice board.” And they were led inside as the portrait swung open. Sirius looked around in delight. The Gryffindor common room was very cozy, with couches and armchairs and a huge fireplace. “Right, dormitories,” The prefect continued, “girls you’re up those stairs and the first and second doors on the right, boys you’re up here and all the way to the top two doors left and right.”

“Come on, quickly,” James said, grabbing Sirius’ arm and waving at Remus and Peter with his free hand, “We’ve got to make sure we get a room all together.”

“Of course, come on you two!” Sirius followed James, making sure Remus and Peter were right behind him as they almost ran up the stairs to the very top.

“Let’s look in both to see which is better,” suggested Remus, already opening the door on the left and looking around it.

Peter peered over his shoulder then suddenly cried out, “oh no! my trunk is by that bed, but there’s only three beds in here.”

“There’s four in here and our trunks are by them. Look Remus this is your one right?” James asked from the other room. Sirius paused next to James for just a second before coming to a decision. He hurried across the hall into the other room.

“Peter, help me drag your trunk. Remus you go next door and make sure James is moving the right one to over here,” he instructed as he started to pull Peter’s trunk to the doorway.

“What are we doing?” Peter asked.

“Swapping the trunks, obviously!” Sirius said with a bit of exasperation in his voice.

“We can’t split the gang up now,” Remus explained as he walked out to go help James in the other room. Once Peter had cottoned on they quickly had the trunks swapped, and a good thing as the other first year boys were beginning to come up the stairs. There were indeed three of them, so they would fit perfectly into the other room. There must be some magic in the tower that adjusted room sizes Sirius decided. He remembered one of the boys had been called Frank Longbottom but he couldn’t for the life of him recall the names of the other two. He gave them a friendly wave and pointed at their room before stepping out of the hall and shutting the door.

“This is great!” James grinned around at them all and then began to rummage through his trunk looking for pyjamas. It was complete chaos and it looked like he was going to come up empty, but suddenly there was a funny knocking on the window and James ran over to it in relief. “Weebles!” he cried, flinging the window open so two owls could fly in with an enormous bundle tied between them.

“What is that?” Sirius asked in shock.

“I forgot my owl in the rush to leave this morning. Mum promised she’d send her, and I guess this is everything else I forgot too. Thanks Evenstar! Here can you give this note to Mum? Just let me write it.” James grabbed a quill and ink and piece of parchment out of the bundle the owls had dropped on his bed and scribbled something down quickly, using his nightstand as a table. He handed it to the larger of the two owls and it swooped back out into the night. The other owl meanwhile was showing no desire to leave, and sure enough James shut the window and sat down with the owl in his lap, scratching at her feathers.

“Weebles this is everyone, everyone meet Weebles,” James said gesturing around at his friends. Weebles clicked her beak in what seemed like a friendly way and burrowed into James’ lap a bit like a cat.

“Do owls normally stay in the dorms?” Remus asked, “I just sent Harlow off to the owlery.”

“The owlery is probably normal, but Weebles is special. And don’t worry, she’s very tidy - much tidier than me in fact” James replied.

“That’s not hard to believe,” Sirius said with a snicker as he looked at the chaos surrounding James’ bed. His own trunk had of course been meticulously packed and thus was very easy to unpack, and as he looked around he could see Remus carefully unpacking a small number of possessions into his nightstand, and Peter just pulling out his pyjamas and leaving everything else in his trunk.

James was sitting on his bed opening a carefully wrapped package, the only careful thing in his whole mess of belongings. “What’s that?” Sirius asked.

“I don’t know,” James replied, “My dad gave it to me right before I got on the train, told me not to open it in public.” He pulled the last of the wrappings off and they all gasped. James was holding a pile of unmistakable shimmering fabric…

“Is that-?” Remus asked.

“An invisibility cloak, wow!” Peter squeaked.

James didn’t answer, just staring in shock at the cloak he held in his hands.

“Why would your dad give you an invisibility cloak?” Sirius asked, “don’t get me wrong it’s awesome! But it’s a bit of a strange present to give you, I mean just think of all the mischief we can get up to with it.”

“It’s not just an invisibility cloak,” James said quietly, “It’s the best invisibility cloak you could ever imagine and it’s been in my family for centuries. I never thought my dad would trust me with it.”

“How has it lasted centuries?” Remus asked, clear curiosity in his voice.

“It was made with powerful magic by one of my ancestors, or that’s the story Dad always told.” James reverently folded the cloak and tucked it safely into his nightstand.

They all chattered for a little longer as they got ready for bed, but pretty quickly they were under their covers and falling asleep. Or at least, James and Peter were falling asleep. Sirius wasn’t entirely sure about Remus but he thought he might also be lying awake staring at the ceiling. Sirius needed to take some time to process this crazy day. It had started under his mother’s controlling rules but had ended so completely differently. He knew that he would probably get an incredibly angry letter from his mother very soon, he might even have done enough to warrant his father’s involvement. And he would definitely be getting confronted by his Slytherin cousins, possibly the very next morning. But in spite of all that he was unbelievably happy, because not only was he not in Slytherin but he somehow had managed to get himself a group of friends who seemed to actually like him and not care a jot about his family history.

Sirius pondered his three new friends now. Peter was clearly shy and a bit of a scaredy cat, but he had ended up in Gryffindor so that was something. Sirius didn’t feel strongly pulled to Peter but he was happy enough to hang out with him. The other two were a different matter. James felt like the brother he’d never met, they bickered and teased, and joked and laughed, and all around it was just natural and easy with him and Sirius could see that it wouldn’t take long before he’d be confiding all his deepest secrets and desires into James’ waiting ears. And Remus…

Well Remus was a complicated one. Sirius liked him - a lot, maybe a little bit too much. It had started on the train, where Sirius had watched him walk past their compartment and without knowing why had leapt up mid conversation to drag him inside. He hadn’t understood the overwhelming feeling that overtook him, he’d just known he couldn’t let that beautiful boy walk away from him. And then he’d hung on every word Remus said in his gentle Welsh accent the whole train ride, and when they fell in the lake he was pretty sure Remus hadn’t needed the squid to help him back in the boat - he was just strong enough to do it himself. At the feast Sirius had been distracted with nerves over the sorting, and he hadn’t been able to relax until Remus was sitting next to him. James and Peter hadn’t joined them yet, but Sirius had felt like all was right the moment Remus got into Gryffindor as if the world couldn’t be right if they were separated. He’d whispered as much to Remus and he wasn’t sure why or what he meant by it. Sirius lay there pondering the mysterious way he felt about the beautiful Welsh boy for a long while before finally slipping into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a couple of notes about Remus' 'furry little problem'
> 
> I decided that if he has to go through this painful transformation into a dangerous dark creature once a month I want to give him all the perks I can to make up for it. So he's not gonna be a glorified invalid all the time, he's gonna have heightened senses and strength/agility etc.
> 
> The transformation itself will still be horrible and when he's alone he'll injure himself for lack of anyone else to fight so he'll have to take time off after the moon to recover.
> 
> I'd love to hear any ideas for things you'd like to see the Marauders get up to, or thoughts on where the story could go (with full credit noted for any ideas I use obviously). I'm basically making this up as I go along - I have a few big plans for major plot points, but the in between moments are all just getting written as they pop into my head.


	3. A Mysterious Illness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first few weeks of school end with a bit of a mystery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have managed to write a chapter that covers more than a day, but POVs are still jumping as fast as my erratic brain will allow.

**James**

The first few weeks of term raced by. James and Sirius quickly learnt that they had identical senses of humour, loving anything loud or outrageous. They were barely into their second week when they got their first detention for staging a race from Gryffindor tower to the quidditch pitch and back that resulted in five Ravenclaw second years getting knocked down half a flight of stairs when the two boys charged through their group. They spent the evening scrubbing floors in the hospital wing to repay all the extra work they’d cost Madam Pomfrey fixing up bruises and scrapes. But as James told Remus and Peter when they finally got back to their dormitory, “It hardly counted as punishment because we were in it together. And Madam Pomfrey was busy in her office so we had the room to ourselves mostly. As long as we weren’t too loud and the floors ended up clean we could do whatever.”

“Yeah! We even got to have a rematch since our race got thwarted,” Sirius interrupted. “We got the floors nice and mopped and then had a sliding match down the middle of the beds, which I won by the way,” he concluded, grinning.

“By an inch!” James grumbled.

They managed to stay out of detention for the next wee while, convinced by Remus that their pranks should be properly planned out. Remus, it turned out, could be very creative when it came to scheming. While Peter was just happy to go along with whatever harebrained scheme Sirius and James came up with for hi-jinks, Remus would quickly pull it to pieces and show them all the ways it was going to go wrong and how they needed to change it so they wouldn’t get caught. And so with Remus’ help the group were able to avoid getting caught for the majority of their pranks.

Classes were also surprisingly fun, despite involving homework that ate into their evenings and weekends. James was thrilled to be learning magic, not just for all the new levels of pranking it offered, but also because it was so satisfying when he got a spell to work for the first time or brewed a potion successfully. Of course some classes were less exciting, like history of magic, taught by ghost Professor Binns. Binns droned on and on in soporific tones about the most unexciting parts of magical history. James knew there were exciting parts of history, his parents’ friend Bathilda Bagshot was a noted historian (in fact she had written their textbook) and she used to babysit James on occasion and had always told the most thrilling bedtime stories about true events in magical history. But aside from history of magic, and the odd theory lesson here and there in the other subjects, the schoolwork was pretty darn exciting really. Even the homework wasn’t too bad. James and Sirius had both been drilled in completing homework early by their parents. Though of course this resulted in opposite reactions from the boys: James did his homework quickly though often sloppily as soon as he got it, while Sirius waited till the last possible moment to start. They seemed to get similar results however, as both their methods involved not really devoting enough time to the homework.

One of the things that James quickly realised about all three of his friends was that none of them were as carefree as he was. In Sirius’ case he could tell it was due to his strict upbringing mixed with his innate desire to rebel, his acts of mischief always coming with an expectant air as though he was just waiting for the inevitable punishment. Peter’s attitude was also pretty easy to work out. He was clumsy, simple as that, and had clearly been babied by his parents which did not seem to have helped. James had decided it was his personal responsibility to tease Peter out of his worried baby attitude and to show Sirius that having fun did not have to be an act of rebellion.

Remus was trickier though. For the most part he was engaged and friendly. He did his homework properly and worked hard in class, but he was also the mastermind behind their best pranks so far (he had come up with the brilliant idea to learn a shoelace tying spell and then use it on the Slytherins they shared potions with so that they all tripped over when they got up to leave class, and no one had been able to work out who did it so they didn’t even get in trouble). But there were moments when James would notice Remus seem to fold in on himself, sometimes after he told a joke that wasn’t quite right or misunderstood one of Sirius’ sarcastic comments. This, along with the times when Remus said something that almost sounded like an adult had said it, led James to think that Remus’ parents might have been the opposite of Peter’s. He thought that perhaps instead of babying him they may have treated him too much like an adult and forced him to act grown up all the time. This didn’t quite fit though, when James took into account the regular letters Remus and his parents exchanged (about the same number he and his own parents sent). And Remus always seemed happy after he got a letter so it didn’t seem like they were the nasty kind like what Sirius got from his mother.

One evening, nearly three weeks into term, James decided it was time to probe the mystery of what he thought of as Remus’ care-heavy moments. It was time to work out what caused them and how he could combat them. So he baldly asked, “Remus, what was your childhood like?”

“I- uh- good I guess,” Remus stuttered in surprise. James noted the folding start to happen, a sure sign that he was onto something.

He pushed forward, “well I mean you obviously read a lot of books, or you wouldn’t be so good at all the textbook stuff now. But what else did you do? Did you always live near Holyhead? What are your parents like? What’s your house like? Do you have grandparents who you visit for holidays?”

Remus stared at him in bewilderment for what felt to James like an eternity before finally replying, “Our house is right by the sea on these cliff tops, so I spent a lot of time exploring and climbing down to swim whenever it was warm enough. And my mum taught me school stuff ya know, and we played games and watched TV. We moved to Holy Island when I was around 4, my mum wanted to live somewhere quiet away from the big cities and people. Mum is a muggle and Dad is a wizard so we’ve always done a mix of muggle and magic things. Our house is really cool, it’s all by itself right at the edge of the cliffs, and any direction you look all you can see is ocean or moors. And like I said there are tracks down the cliffs that you can find if you look hard enough and then there’s little beaches and there are sea caves. Sometimes I used to feel like I was living in a muggle adventure story, it’s great!” His eyes lit up for a minute then, before going a bit blank as he finished off, “I have grandparents but we never really see them cause we live so far away, and Mum’s parents don’t know about magic so that would be tricky.”

Now it made sense to James. He asked just one more question to confirm his theory, “Were there other kids around where you live? Or was it just you and your parents and these amazing cliffs I’m beginning to think might actually be your best friends and we’re just stand-ins for?”Suddenly

Remus looked down at his feet, going full on folded mode, and quietly answered, “Just me and my parents. I know… it’s weird.”

James was quick to reassure Remus that it wasn’t weird and he changed the topic to some question about one of their classes, but in his head the pieces had clicked together. Remus had never hung out with other kids, he’d lived alone with just his parents. It explained the weird adult ways of talking, and it totally explained why he sometimes got jokes and sarcasm wrong. Coming to Hogwarts must be his first time experiencing all the normal kid things that were second nature to James, and even to Sirius and Peter. They had all had plenty of interactions with other kids before Hogwarts. James and Peter had both gone to muggle primary schools and Sirius had a brother who was just a year younger than him.

Now that the mystery was solved, James could formulate a plan of attack. It was pretty simple really. Remus would get better with time as he learnt more about being a kid from the rest of them. James would make sure to expose Remus to as broad a range of jokes and games and anything else he could think of that Remus might have missed out on before now. James decided that it would probably help if he got Sirius and Peter on board too, and so when Remus got up to go to the bathroom he quickly filled them in on the plan and swore them to secrecy to never tell Remus. They both agreed, though Peter was nervous as he was terrible at keeping secrets. But at stern looks from James and Sirius he promised he would keep this secret.

  
  


**Peter**

Peter’s first few weeks at Hogwarts were surprising, at least by Peter’s standards. Some mornings he managed to make it the whole way through breakfast without spilling food on himself, and even occasionally lunch too. He thought that the number of spill-free mornings was increasing, and maybe one day in the not too distant future he might get to the level of the rest of his classmates and only occasionally spill food if it was a particularly messy meal. Classes were hard, but he wasn’t miles behind everyone else as he had feared he might be. In class it would take him a while but he would eventually succeed at whatever spell they were learning. Homework was the hardest part, but it turned out Remus was really good at reading and writing and bizarrely seemed to enjoy talking about their homework. This meant if Peter did his homework next to Remus he was able to get help on the bits he didn’t understand just by asking. James and Sirius were no use for help with homework as they each had their own mad methods, but they were great fun to hang out with.Suddenly

When it came down to it Peter felt like somehow he’d lucked out on the train and had managed to get himself the best friends available at Hogwarts. When they weren’t in class or doing homework, the four boys were inseparable. Peter could tell that James and Sirius were a bit closer to each other than to him and Remus, but he didn’t really mind as they never tried to leave him out of any of their schemes. Sometimes James would even do a headcount to make sure all four of them were there before setting off on an adventure.

Over the weeks Peter grew in confidence, taking a more and more active role in whatever the boys were doing. He even came up with a prank suggestion that got the Remus stamp of approval. They had developed the Remus stamp system after James and Sirius’ first detention and it hadn’t let them down yet. Peter’s prank involved charming the soap in the ground floor bathrooms to dye everyone’s hands different colours, using a spell he had found in a library book he and Remus had been using for their homework one afternoon. It was made even funnier by the fact that you could tell who hadn’t washed their hands by their colour when they came out of the bathroom. Peter was very proud of how well it had gone.

Three weeks into the term Peter and Remus were in the library working on a piece of history of magic homework. Peter was finding it really hard, but Remus was not his usual helpful chatty self. He kept jumping at the slightest sound, and was twisting his fingers in his lap constantly. After about twenty minutes of this Peter asked, “are you okay Remus?”

“What, I’m fine!” Remus practically squawked at him.

“Are you sure? You’ve been acting super jumpy, and we’re not getting anywhere with this homework.”

“Ah- sorry, I guess maybe I’ve got a bit of a headache. Can we call it a night?” Remus asked.

“Sure, let’s finish it tomorrow,” Peter suggested, starting to pack up his books.

Remus looked a little funny at that, but didn’t say anything as he packed up his own things. They headed out of the library and started walking up to Gryffindor tower. About halfway there Remus stopped and said, “My headache’s getting really bad Pete, I think I’d better go see Madam Pomfrey.”

“Oh no! Come on then,” Peter said, changing direction towards the hospital wing.

“No you go on, I’ll be fine on my own,” Remus interjected, waving Peter away as he tried to follow him.

“Okay, see you in a bit I guess,” Peter said and turned back to the tower. He was a bit concerned, but Remus was the most sensible of the boys, he wouldn’t do anything silly.

When Peter stepped through the portrait hole a few minutes later the first thing Sirius said was “where’s Remus?” standing up to look past Peter.

“He went to the hospital wing with a headache.”

“Why didn’t you go with him?” Sirius sounded almost accusing.

“I tried, but he told me to just go on without him.”

“I don’t like it. He’s been weird all day.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” James soothed, reaching out from where he was sitting to lay his hand on Sirius’ arm. “He’ll probably turn up in ten minutes feeling much better. Madam Pomfrey is a whizz with headache cures.”

Sirius continued to fret all evening, and finally when it was almost curfew James agreed that they could go down to the hospital wing to see what had happened.

  
  


**Sirius**

Remus wasn’t okay. Sirius just knew it. He’d known it all day, and now Remus had disappeared with mysterious claims of a headache and something was wrong. He hurried along, James and Peter struggling to keep up as he led the way to the hospital wing. Finally they got there, but when they knocked on the door no one answered and when James tried the door handle it was locked.

Something was really wrong, but they couldn’t stay to find out or they’d get caught out past curfew. James practically had to drag Sirius back to Gryffindor tower, though he seemed pretty reluctant to do so himself. Once they got back to the common room the three boys sat agitatedly by the fire, eyes flicking to the portrait hole every few minutes hoping to see Remus climbing through. It was getting late and almost all the other students had gone up to bed when one of the prefects stopped by where they were sitting and told them to go to bed.

“Remus hasn’t come back from the hospital wing,” James explained. “He just went to get a headache fix and he’s been gone for ages, we’re waiting for him.”

“If it was late Madam Pomfrey probably just decided to make him stay the night, she does that a lot,” the prefect, Andrews Sirius remembered he was called, said reassuringly.

“But we went by the hospital wing before curfew to see and it was locked. She wasn’t there,” Sirius cried.

“She’d probably just locked up early for the night and was busy settling Remus in. Now go on, you need to get to bed or I’ll be in trouble with McGonagall.” Andrews shooed them up the stairs, following them all the way to make sure they actually went into their dorm.

They all got into their pyjamas quietly, and got into bed. Peter started snoring almost immediately, but Sirius knew he wouldn’t sleep a wink and he was unsurprised when James appeared at the foot of his bed, pulling the hangings aside quietly. They didn’t say anything for a while, just sat together on Sirius’ bed listening to the sound of Peter snoring and the night time noises of the castle. There were owls hooting in the distance, Weebles probably among them as she’d gone off to hunt. She would turn up at some point in the night and come looking for James to cuddle with. That owl really was bizarre, thought Sirius, but only for a moment before his mind returned to worrying about Remus.

“What do you think happened to him?” James whispered.

“I don’t know,” Sirius sighed, “But whatever it was it can’t be good. It’s got to be more than a headache. That would have only taken a minute to fix and it was well before curfew when Peter left him. Oh why did Peter have to leave him? If he’d just gone with him then we’d know what was going on.” Sirius' voice got a little loud at the end, but not enough to wake the boy in question.

“It sounded like Remus wanted to go alone though didn’t it,” James pointed out.

“But why?”

“Well maybe he could tell it was more than a headache, maybe he thought if we didn’t know we wouldn’t worry.”

“That’s just stupid, he should know we’re gonna worry about him. We’re his friends after all.”

“But remember, Remus hasn’t had friends like us before. I’m pretty sure it was just him and his parents till he came to Hogwarts.”

“So you’re saying it’s just one of those ‘I don’t know how to be a kid’ moments he has.”

“Maybe, I dunno.”

“I guess that could make sense. I’m still allowed to tell him he’s stupid though right?”

“As soon as he’s back and better you can tell him all the ways he’s stupid.”

“What if he’s not better. James! What if he’s really ill?” Sirius was suddenly panicked.

James reached out and placed both his hands on Sirius’ shoulders, holding him firmly. “Breathe Sirius, he will be okay. Peter saw him just a few hours ago, he was walking and talking and on his way to see Madam Pomfrey. Whatever it is she’ll be able to look after him.”

They were silent for a while again, James holding Sirius and Sirius working to keep his breathing calm. Logically Sirius knew James was right, Remus hadn’t been gone very long at all and he was with Madam Pomfrey. But his heart didn’t seem to understand logic. It kept beating erratically and sending him into near panic again and again. Eventually Weebles returned from her hunt, the remains of some rodent poking out of her beak. Her heightened night senses told her that James wasn’t in his bed so she came pushing her way through the hangings onto Sirius' already crowded bed. Surprisingly, instead of going straight to James as she normally would, she settled herself into Sirius’ lap as if she knew he needed comfort. It worked too, as Sirius found himself finally getting sleepy as he stroked her. He and James lay down on his bed with the owl cuddled between them. It was cramped, but Sirius was glad James stayed - just in case he got panicky again and needed him. His last thought before he fell asleep was a vow that he would go to the hospital wing first thing in the morning and break the door down if he had to in order to see Remus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops sorry for the cliffhanger!
> 
> Next chapter is Lily's first few weeks at Hogwarts, so it'll be a little while before the boys get their resolution but I promise it is coming.
> 
> James is the mother hen of the group, it's just the way he was raised in my head.


	4. New Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily settles in to Hogwarts life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first major OC of the series makes a brief appearance here, along with some set building for Lily (literally at one point ;) )

**Lily**

Lily’s first evening at Hogwarts was pretty good but not perfect. She got to introduce herself to her dorm mates, Marlene McKinnon, Alice Fortescue and Mary MacDonald, and they were all friendly. But she wasn’t in the same house as Severus and that was sad. Marlene told her that it wasn’t uncommon to have friends in other houses but Slytherin and Gryffindor were enemies by trade according to Marlene’s older brother. The girls asked Marlene a lot of questions their first night, staying up until an older student came and poked their head in to tell them to go to sleep. She was the only one with an older sibling who had already been to Hogwarts. Alice was an only child and a halfblood, which Lily learned was the name for when you had one magical and one muggle parent. Alice had cousins who had been to Hogwarts but they were all much older than her so she didn’t know them that well. Lily and Mary were both muggleborn and Mary only had younger siblings. Mary had just assumed that they would be magical as well and was surprised to learn that Lily had an older sister who wasn’t a witch.

The next morning Lily walked down to breakfast with Mary and Alice, Marlene insisting she needed an extra fifteen minutes and would follow them shortly. When she got into the great hall, Lily looked over at the Slytherin table and saw Severus waving at her. “Do you mind if we go say hi?” She asked the girls. They nodded and the three of them walked over. Severus’ smile slipped as he noticed she hadn’t left her friends, and Lily’s thoughts flickered to concern for a second before she pushed it aside.

“Morning Sev,” she said cheerfully once they had reached his spot at the table. “These are my friends Mary and Alice. Mary, Alice, this is Severus, my friend from back home.”

“Hi” the girls said in unison. Severus just gave them a brief nod before turning to Lily.

“Do you have your timetable yet? I think there are some classes we might have together.”

“Not yet, we only just came down. I hope we do though, that would be nice. How was your first night? Do you have nice dorm mates?”

“It was fine, I don’t really know my dorm mates yet. I mean everyone just went to bed didn’t they.”

“ _ We _ stayed up so late we had to get told to shut up by a prefect,” Alice interjected and Mary and Lily nodded in agreement.

“It was so fun, like a big sleepover!” Mary giggled.

“Right well. You’d better get back to your table, I think that’s your head handing out timetables,” Severus said bluntly. He hadn’t even looked at Alice and Mary when they spoke.

“Okay, see you later maybe,” Lily said. She and the other two girls turned and headed back to the Gryffindor table.

“Well that was certainly an interesting experience,” Alice mused.

“I don’t why he was like that,” Lily sighed, “He’s normally really nice.”

“I could take a guess,” Mary said quietly. She looked like she didn’t really want to say what she was thinking, but Alice looked expectantly at her and she elaborated. “Well, you heard Marlene last night. Gryffindors and Slytherins don’t get on, and while he’d probably make an exception for Lily I would guess he doesn’t think we’re worth his time. He probably wishes you’d shun us and only be friends with him.”

“Sev’s not like that!” Lily said a little angrily. But she quickly realised how she sounded, “sorry I didn’t mean to snap, and you’re right he was a bit weird to you. I think maybe he’s just shy, it took him months to talk to me after he worked out I was a witch.”

“Maybe try talking to him alone next time,” Alice suggested. “We don’t mind sharing so long as he gives you back.”

Mary and Lily giggled and the three girls fell into their seats together just as they saw Marlene practically sleep walk into the hall. She clearly was not one for mornings, but she did smile at them groggily, sitting down on the other side of the table and pulling a plate of sausages toward her. They all began to tuck in, and so when Professor McGonagall, their head of house, came down the table to them a moment later none of them could say a word with their mouths full of food. She didn’t seem to be bothered though, handing them each a timetable from the stack in her arms and walking on to the next group of students.

Mary swallowed and began reading her timetable aloud, “We’ve got Herbology first, with the Ravenclaws, then morning break then Charms, just the Gryffindors. After lunch we’ve got Defence Against the Dark Arts, woah that sounds spooky. Then we finish up with Potions shared with the Slytherins, you’ll get to see Severus again Lily.” She continued to rattle on, telling them what they would have for the entire week. By the time she’d finished none of them could remember what she’d said their first lesson would be and had to look at their own timetables anyway to find out. They didn’t mind though, Lily was just as excited as Mary about the prospect of all these magic lessons, and Alice and Marlene were happy enough humouring them.

After breakfast the four girls raced down to the Herbology greenhouses for their first lesson. There was a large group of students milling around, including the rest of the Gryffindor first years and all the Ravenclaws. Lily noticed that the four boys she had briefly shared a carriage with on the train were all crowded together as thick as thieves.  _ Lucky them, they all got the same house _ she thought a little grumpily, but Mary brought her attention back by squeezing her arm excitedly and she realised she was lucky too. She had a good group of friends surrounding her even if Severus wasn’t there.

Professor Sprout stepped out of the greenhouses to welcome the new students. She led them all inside greenhouse one and instructed them to split into groups of six and gather round a planter. A Ravenclaw boy and girl standing near Lily came towards them.

“Can we join your group? I’m Dorcas Meadowes and this is Hakim Issawi,” the girl said, and the boy gave a little wave and smiled.

“Sure! We need two more,” Marlene replied decisively. They all crowded round a planter to wait for Professor Sprout’s next instruction. It took a little while as other groups took longer to form and she had to come down from the front to chivy some of the stragglers. Eventually though the class had managed to split into five groups and Professor Sprout began to tell them about the plants they could see in front of them. They spent the lesson working together in their groups to identify features on the plants in front of them that differentiated them from their non-magical counterparts. It turned out that most magical plants blended into muggle nature very well, sometimes too well in fact and then the ministry would have to intervene to save injured and befuddled muggles who might be wondering why their daffodils had suddenly started trying to suck their blood anytime they got close. Lily and Hakim, the Ravenclaw boy, both found the lesson fascinating. The two of them paid more attention than the rest of their group, who kept getting distracted by poking the plants to see what might happen.

At the end of class the four Gryffindor girls walked to break with Dorcas and Hakim, chatting about their lives before Hogwarts. Dorcas was a halfblood from Durham with an older sister who was a fifth year at Hogwarts and a younger brother due to come in a couple of years. Hakim was pureblood and from Scotland, a little coastal town called Aberlady not far from Edinburgh. Hakim was the youngest in his family, with four older brothers. He said it was really nice to hang out with girls for once without getting teased. Marlene was from South London; Alice apparently lived with her uncle above his shop in Diagon Alley as her parents travelled an absurd amount for their jobs and so they didn’t have a permanent home; and Mary was from Brighton. Lily was surprised to learn Alice lived with her uncle, she hadn’t mentioned it the night before. But where they all lived hadn’t come up till now so maybe that was the only reason.

They all kept chatting till the morning break was over and it was time to head off for their next classes, the Gryffindors to Charms and the Ravenclaws to Transfiguration. In Charms it was three to a table and Lily ended up with Alice and Remus, the welsh boy she had liked on the train. Lily’s initial assumption that she would like Remus proved true. He was quiet but friendly, and he worked really hard in class. His friends sitting at the table in front of them were another matter. James and Sirius were as raucous as they had been on the train and Peter was getting less and less quiet the more time went on. The Charms teacher Professor Flitwick didn’t seem to mind though, he was happy for the class to be loud and a bit silly as they practised the incantation he was teaching today. They all had their wands safely stowed to prevent unprepared magic from causing total chaos but nonetheless things almost got out of hand when Sirius and James decided to see who could say the charm loudest and they actually managed to make James’ ink bottle hover off the desk for a second. Professor Flitwick intervened quickly and brought the boys down to a slightly more manageable level of noise.

At lunch Lily sat and chatted with the girls and in Defence Against the Dark Arts they all sat together. This was another Gryffindor only class, so Sirius and James were again the life and soul of things until Professor Mulligan threatened them with a point deduction if they didn’t behave.

After that class it was potions and, as Alice had suggested, Lily went to go sit with Severus away from her friends. He seemed thoroughly back to normal, happy to see her and excited for the lesson. She asked about his day, and he quietly told her he’d gotten to know two of the boys in his dorm slightly but he wasn’t sure if they were friends yet. Their names were Avery and Mulciber. Lily could see from Sev’s face that he’d found the time since they were on the train quite hard so she decided now wasn’t the time to push him about how he’d treated her friends at breakfast. She knew he was shy and didn’t like big groups of people, so really it wasn’t surprising that he was struggling a bit. They worked diligently together and by the end of the class they had successfully brewed a basic shrinking solution. Lily was very proud of their work but Severus kept muttering about things he could have done better. His mum was a potioneer Lily remembered, she’d probably taught Severus loads over the years and had high expectations for him.

Lily and Severus walked to dinner together after potions, chatting lightly about nothing much. When they entered the great hall though, Severus got a little stiff and said they’d better not eat together. Lily wanted to ask why but he’d already said goodbye and hurried away to the Slytherin table. She wandered slowly to the Gryffindor table, hoping her friends would catch up by the time she got there. Sure enough, just as she was sitting down she felt arms fling themselves around her and Marlene was giggling in her ear about some joke that Alice had made a moment before.

“How was your date with Severus?” Marlene asked in a sing-song voice.

“It wasn’t a date! We’re just friends,” Lily said, but she knew Marlene was just teasing so she didn’t really mind. “He’s okay I think. It’s a lot for him being around so many new people, he’s always been really shy.”

“Alright we’ll let it go,” Alice said, and seamlessly switched the conversation to whether they needed to start their homework right away or if they could instead build a blanket fort in their dorm. A compromise was reached by the end of dinner, they would build a blanket fort in which to complete their homework.

The rest of the week continued in a similar vein. Lily spent potions lessons with Severus, and sometimes morning break in the courtyard, but they didn’t eat together and she spent the rest of her time with her dormmates, Remus and occasionally Peter, and Dorcas and Hakim. They studied in the library or their blanket fort - they had been able to make it permanent when more blankets appeared in their dorm one evening after class, brought by house elves according to Marlene - and played board games in the common room or wandered around the grounds when it wasn’t too cold. About once a day James or Sirius (who she’d started calling Potter and Black after noticing that it was common to call people by their surnames unless you were friends - and she definitely wasn’t friends with Black and Potter) would do something thoroughly annoying and Lily would glare at them while others laughed. And that pattern continued into the next week and the next and Lily could feel the routine of her life at Hogwarts settling in around her. Sometimes she wished that Severus would try to be nice to her other friends, but mostly she just enjoyed the time she had with him. Occasionally she had to remind herself of the promise she’d made to herself before coming to Hogwarts, she and Severus were friends forever and that was that. This would happen whenever he did something a bit mean to a Gryffindor, like laughing when Mary’s potion went wrong one day in class or sticking out his foot to trip Peter on the stairs. Lily always told Sev she didn’t like it when things like this happened, but as he always looked extra uncomfortable and would quickly change the subject, she never really got the chance to push it and actually question him on why he liked her but not her other friends, and why he never introduced her to his friends.

It was a strange dynamic, but Lily decided that if this was all the Severus she could get then she would take it and not complain. Overall things were good but not perfect, and after all could anyone really say their life was perfect?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments make my day!
> 
> I love hearing your thoughts on the series so far and I'm always super keen to hear what you'd like to happen for the characters.
> 
> Next chapter picks up where we left Remus on his way to the hospital wing with a 'headache'.


	5. In the Hospital Wing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Awhooo
> 
> Angsty 11-year-olds, and Madam Pomfrey's softer side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone that's reading this each week! I hope you're enjoying the story :)
> 
> Here's the promised full moon chapter.

**Remus**

After he managed to get away from Peter, Remus hurried to the hospital wing as fast as he could. He knew he didn’t have a whole lot of time to spare with the feeling of the moon pulling at his muscles and bones as it climbed closer and closer to the horizon. It would be his first full moon away from his parents and his family home. They had moved to the clifftop house right after Remus got bitten so that he could be hidden away from other people. So for the past seven years he’d spent one night every month locked in one of the outbuildings, modified to withstand a wolf’s escape attempts. He didn’t know where he’d be tonight and it terrified him. The wolf had been unsettled in his head since the move to Hogwarts, and Remus was sure it would let him know all about how it had been feeling when it took control in a little while.

He reached the hospital wing and hurried inside. He’d been told by Professor Dumbledore that Madam Pomfrey would be escorting him to and from his transformation place outside the castle. She was indeed waiting for him, tucking sheets into beds. She looked up as Remus entered and he could see tension in her face, though she didn’t look directly afraid which he guessed was a comfort. She was looking at someone about to turn into a horrible monster after all.

“Mr Lupin, at last!” She said sternly. Remus winced at the volume of her voice, which to anyone else would probably sound quiet, but this close to the full moon his every sense was heightened and it was like a cacophony in his ears. “Are you all right?” she asked, hurrying over to him.

“I’m fine, it’s just the noise,” Remus replied in a whisper. Madam Pomfrey’s eyes widened a little, but her next words were quieter.

“Right then, I think we’d better get you to the shack. It’s nearly evening after all and I want you safely settled in before moon-rise.” She led him to a back door of the hospital wing and down a flight of stairs that took them all the way to the ground floor of the castle. They were able to make their way into the grounds unnoticed by any students or teachers, and as they walked across the front lawn Remus realised they were clearly headed towards the whomping willow. He remembered Dumbledore warning everyone about it at the start of term feast. It had been planted this year and was highly dangerous, prone to flinging its branches at anyone who got too close. A few students, including James and Sirius, had already had near misses after making a game out of it.

Sure enough though, Madam Pomfrey was leading Remus to the whomping willow. They got quite close before she stopped and pulled out her wand. “Do you see that knot in the wood by the base?” she asked Remus, pointing with her other hand.

“I think so,” he answered, working to get his eyes to obey him and focus on the tree in front of him instead of scouring the sky for any sign of the moon. It was getting close, he could feel his joints starting to loosen.

“The trick to getting the tree to stop attacking is to hit that knot. I’m going to do it tonight, but we’ll work on teaching you so you can do it yourself if you ever need to.” She raised her wand and performed a swishing movement followed by a flick that sent a large stick from the ground floating towards the knot she had pointed out. As soon as it tapped the knot, the tree stopped waving its branches menacingly and was as still as any other tree.

Remus and Madam Pomfrey walked toward the tree, and suddenly in front of them Remus noticed a hole in the side of the trunk large enough for a person to slip through. He followed Madam Pomfrey through it and into a low roofed tunnel. They walked along in silence for a while before the path ended and a ladder appeared in front of them leading up to a trapdoor. Up they climbed and arrived in what Remus could tell was to be his home for this night and many more.

“You have the run of this house, there’s a room upstairs with a bed and blankets in case you get cold and there’s some food in the cupboard over there. Professor Dumbledore said your parents normally leave some raw meat for you so I’ve done that. And there’s changes of robes in another cupboard if you need them in the morning. Now I’d better leave you to it, I’ll be back at dawn to bring you back to the castle,” Madam Pomfrey rambled a little as she spoke, clearly getting a bit anxious.

Remus just nodded and stood still watching her leave. He waited until he heard her scramble through the hole at the end of the tunnel, the sound echoing all the way back to him. Then he began to explore, testing the magical boundaries he could feel in place. They were strong, Dumbledore had clearly done a good job. It didn’t seem like there would be any risk of the wolf getting out. And then all of a sudden Remus knew he had a matter of seconds before the transformation proper would start and he frantically stripped off his clothes and pushed them into one of the cupboards to protect them. He could hear the wolf howling joyously in his ears and feel every muscle and joint in his body loosen and then tighten in preparation. His last thought before he was lost to the pain was  _ I hope the boys don’t miss me tonight _ .

  
  


* * *

Remus woke to the worried voice of Madam Pomfrey. “Mr Lupin, Mr Lupin! Please wake up now,” she called to him. He grimaced as he began to feel the extent of how badly the wolf had acted last night. His shoulders ached and he could feel bruises forming from the pounding they had taken. He thought he must have thrown himself at the walls trying to get out. Worse than his shoulders though, was the line of fire tracing its way down his side. There were other minor scratches that hurt and stung, but the one on his side cut deep into the muscle. Remus thought there was even a chance he’d hit his ribcage in one or two places. He could taste his own blood in his mouth, he hoped it was only from licking his wounds, but with the wolf you never knew.

“Mr Lupin, can you hear me?” Madam Pomfrey was insistent and sounded very worried.

Remus sighed and opened his eyes to look at her. “Hearing has never been my problem,” he said hoarsely.

“Oh thank goodness! If you’re joking you must not be feeling as bad as you look.”

“It’s not that bad really, considering…”

“This scratch on your side is very deep and you’ve lost quite a lot of blood, Mr Lupin. I won’t sugar coat it, things are pretty bad.”

“No broken bones, and no bites, I’d call that a win for throwing the wolf into a new environment like this.”

“Oh!” was all Madam Pomfrey could manage as she looked down at Remus, realising he was being completely serious. She busied herself working spells on his cuts and bruises, trying to hide her eyes from Remus. But his senses were still heightened enough that he could smell the tears forming in her eyes. It reminded him of his mum, who always cried when she was healing Remus after a moon, and that made him homesick. But Madam Pomfrey was better than his mother at healing, and in a few moments Remus felt well enough to decide he could sit up and start to feel embarrassed about his nakedness.

“I put my clothes in the cupboard, could you-?”

“Of course, here let me help you get the robes on. I think the rest can wait till you’re a little more able. Let’s get you back to the hospital wing to rest and recover.” She wrapped Remus’ robes around him and helped him to stand gingerly. They walked together toward the trapdoor, and Madam Pomfrey used magic to lower Remus through so he didn’t have to try and climb down the ladder. Then she took most of his weight as they made the trek back to the willow and then up to the hospital wing. When they got there Remus was only too happy to accept the bed she had made ready for him in a dark corner, tucked away behind curtains. He grabbed a piece of chocolate out of his bag and slipped into his mouth before falling almost instantly asleep to the soothing taste.

  
  


**Sirius**

Sirius woke as soon as the first traces of light started to creep into the Gryffindor dorms. James was already awake, laying quietly across from him. Sirius blinked away the blurriness in his eyes and James started to get out of the bed, whispering as he did so.

“Let’s not wake Pete, you know he’s not a morning person. We’ll just write him a note saying where we’ve gone and he can follow us when he wakes up.”

“Good idea,” Sirius agreed, pulling his robes on as James tiptoed over to his own bed to find quill and parchment and clothes.

They left the dormitory a couple of minutes later and made their way quietly through the tower and out the portrait hole. Once they were in the corridor James pulled his invisibility cloak out from under his robes, “I think we should use this, it’s so early we don’t want to get in trouble.”

Sirius was a little surprised. James had so far refused to use the cloak for any of their pranks, but of course this was different. They had to see Remus and a run in with Filch or another teacher would be disastrous right now.

The two of them fit easily under the cloak, and it allowed them to take the most direct route to the hospital wing. They got there at exactly 5am according to James’ watch, a muggle one that Sirius’ parents would never have let him wear. The hospital wing doors were predictably shut and locked, but they had expected this and would not be put off. James knocked quietly at first, then a little louder when no one came. Finally Sirius banged on the door and a very angry looking Madam Pomfrey appeared in her dressing gown.

“What on earth do you boys want at this hour?” she asked, eyes pinning them in place fiercely.

“We want to see Remus,” James said.

“He came here with a minor headache yesterday evening but then he never came back to Gryffindor Tower. What happened?” Sirius added, anxiety colouring his voice.

“Mr Lupin is sleeping, you can’t see him right now I’m afraid,” Madam Pomfrey said.

“But what’s wrong with him?” Sirius demanded.

“He will be perfectly fine in a day or two. He needs rest and quiet and that’s something he can’t get with you boys.”

“But he was fine till yesterday, and we didn’t do anything different. I swear we weren’t extra noisy. What could we have done that hurt him?” Sirius’ voice rose in pitch with his anxiety.

“I did not mean to insinuate that you caused Mr Lupin’s illness Mr Black, merely that you can’t aid in his recovery,” Madam Pomfrey, her voice softening for the first time that morning, “but now I really must insist that you head back to your common room. It’s much too early to be up and about.” And with that she shooed them away, shutting the door behind them.

“Don’t worry, we’re not giving up,” James said quickly, watching the expression on Sirius’ face.

“He really was fine till yesterday,” Sirius mumbled, letting James lead him slowly away down the corridor.

“I know mate, I was there too.”

“Do you think she’ll let us in later if we promise to be really quiet?”

“We’ll keep trying, but don’t get your hopes up. I have a feeling Madam Pomfrey is even more stubborn than we are.”

They lapsed into silence, Sirius trying to decide if he felt better for having heard that Remus was going to be okay or worse for being told he couldn’t help.

  
  


**Remus**

He heard Madam Pomfrey shut the hospital wing door and walk towards her office. “Did they really look worried?” he called out, his voice still hoarse - he must have done a lot of howling in the night.

“Oh I’m sorry Mr Lupin, I should have known all that banging would wake you. How are you feeling dear?”

“I’m fine- my friends?”

“Mr Potter and Mr Black were concerned for your well being, they missed you last night it seems. But I don’t believe they suspect anything untoward.”

“I didn’t think they’d worry. I didn’t know that friends-” he cut himself off.

“-that friends worry? But of course they do. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they return later today to try and see you again.”

“Really? You think so?” Remus knew he must sound silly, getting all excited over something so mundane.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to see them. We need to get your scratches seen to first, and that will take a full day and night I expect.”

Remus slumped but nodded in agreement. He wanted desperately to see his friends, but they wouldn’t stay his friends if they saw the way he looked right now.

“How about you try to get a couple more hours of sleep then we’ll see about some breakfast,” Madam Pomfrey soothed. Remus nodded and snuggled down into his bed, sleep already nudging at the corners of his brain.

He spent the day like that, waking for periods to eat and then drifting back to sleep. It was afternoon before he felt like he was starting to come back to his usual self. Madam Pomfrey must have noticed somehow, because she came over from where she had been organising a cabinet on the other side of the room and sat down beside him.

“Are you feeling up to some brainstorming?” she asked.

“What are we brainstorming?” Remus asked in reply, a little confused.

“Your friends have turned out to be very attentive to your health. I don’t think it would be long before Mr Black or Mr Potter put two and two together if you kept getting sick each full moon, from what Professor McGonagall tells me they are both very bright students. So I thought we could come up with some things you might have to do that would take you away for a couple of nights each month. That way you could tell your friends you’ve got to go ‘visit a sick relative’ say and then they wouldn’t worry about you.”

“That’s a really good idea, thank you Madam Pomfrey!”

They spent an hour or so coming up with an elaborate story for Remus to tell his friends. In the end they decided it would be his mother who was unwell, and that he would have gotten special permission from Professor McGonagall to visit her for a couple of days each month. They planned out how he would tell his friends it was a new illness next month and then after the moon he would tell them about the arrangement. For this month Remus would just say he’d had a headache and Madam Pomfrey had decided he wasn’t getting enough sleep and forced him to stay in the hospital wing. “I suggest you complain about it to your friends, tell them I was overreacting and you were bored out of your mind,” Madam Pomfrey said.

“I guess I could do that,” Remus agreed hesitantly, not liking the idea of making Madam Pomfrey out to be some controlling overprotective biddy. Then he let himself ask the question he most wanted to, “did my friends come by again?”

“At morning break, during lunch, and before dinner. They brought Mr Pettigrew too, though he did seem a little worried they would miss out on eating.”

Remus tried to control the grin smothering his face but it was a losing battle and after a moment he gave up. Madam Pomfrey smiled a slightly smaller smile and headed off to her office, taking Remus’ empty dinner tray with her. It was a pretty good feeling, having friends, Remus decided. He spent the rest of the evening reading a book he’d had in his bag, a muggle story his mum had given him about elves and wizards and strange creatures called hobbits. His dreams that night were of quests and adventures, sometimes with the magical storybook characters and sometimes with his own magical friends.

The next morning Remus felt completely ready to get back to normal life, and once Madam Pomfrey had agreed that his healing scars were faded enough not to catch notice he headed out in search of breakfast and his friends. He found the latter sooner than expected when James, Sirius and Peter materialised out of nothing in front of him right outside the hospital wing.

“You’re alive!” Sirius cried, launching himself at Remus with his arms wide. Remus twisted just in time to avoid Sirius whacking into the still healing wound on his side and hugged him back enthusiastically.

“I survived the trenches!” he exclaimed, laughing and waving a hand feebly at James and Peter who grinned back at him. “I hear you caused a bit of trouble for dear Madam Pomfrey, wouldn’t leave her alone yesterday huh?”

“ _ Dear _ Madam Pomfrey gave us no choice. She kept refusing to let us see you, made it sound like you were as tired as an old grandpa and couldn’t possibly be disturbed,” James explained.

“Were you really? Are you okay now?” Peter asked.

“I’m fine! Honestly I’ve been fine since yesterday, but Madam Pomfrey’s a right warhorse. She wouldn’t let me leave, practically tied me to the bed and force fed me a sleeping draught after I mentioned I’d not been getting much sleep for a couple nights,” Remus said, wishing he wasn’t right outside the hospital room where she might overhear and hoping she would know he didn’t mean any of it.

The boys all headed off to breakfast together, and Remus felt things click back into place as normality resumed. He knew it would get broken again in a month’s time, but maybe with his and Madam Pomfrey’s plan they could bring the moons into normality too. Sirius kept an arm around Remus’ shoulders the whole way down to the great hall, a new development. And Remus was unsure whether it was just because he’d been away or if it was something that might keep happening now that it had started. He rather hoped it kept happening, or to be more precise the wolf rather hoped it kept happening.

  
And just in that moment Remus had a flash of memory from the night of the full moon:  _ Howling and howling, why couldn’t he hear? Why wasn’t he coming? The wolf desperately wanted his friend-mate to play with but he wasn’t there and no matter how much the wolf cried for him he didn’t come. He could smell him, just a hint of him from far away when the wind turned, so he knew he must be close. He called and called, and he tried to break free from the prison he’d been locked in, smashing shoulders and slashing at walls but to no avail. Eventually in frustration his claws turned to his own skin for distraction. Pain helped but little and he spent the night lonely in a way he hadn’t been before he met the beautiful blue-eyed black haired boy. _ The rush of feelings sent him stumbling and of course it was Sirius who caught him, looking at him with worry flashing across his face. Remus managed to mumble something about not looking where he was going and they continued on as if the world hadn’t just shifted around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case I haven't made it obvious Remus and Sirius are soulmates (or wolf mates), but they're only 11 so at this point in the story their feelings are friend-based not romantic, and also they don't actually understand what they're feeling. Plus in Remus' case he has two sets of thoughts and feelings bouncing around in his head so it's extra confusing for him.
> 
> I haven't decided how the wizarding world in the 70s feels about LGBT+ people yet (i.e. how angsty or fairy-tale to make things), so bear with me while I work that out and work it into the story slowly.
> 
> Your thoughts and feedback are always welcome, comments and kudos make my day.


	6. Communication Difficulties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius gets a letter and a prank is executed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have renamed 'the Fat Lady' as 'the Lilac Lady' in this story because I have seen it pointed out by fans (and I agree) that 'the Fat Lady' is a pretty offensive name for a portrait so I've instead imagined her as wearing a very distinctive lilac coloured dress, hence everyone calls her 'the Lilac Lady' (I may have also enjoyed the alliteration ;)
> 
> Also, any new spell you see that I've created is probably just a latin translation for the purpose of the spell, in this case the internet tells me impercussus is latin for noiseless.

**Sirius**

As the four boys entered the Great Hall, Sirius relished in the smell of pancakes and hot tea. Yesterday without Remus all food had tasted like sawdust and James had actually threatened to spoon feed him if he didn’t eat something by himself, but today all was right in the world again and he could be carefree and enjoy the simple pleasures. Or so he thought until he saw the blonde haired Slytherin girl walking determinedly in his direction. “I gotta go,” he said quickly to James and, slipping his arm off Remus’ shoulder, he hurried to intercept his cousin before she caused a scene.

Narcissa Black had steel in her gaze as she bore down on him. “We need to talk cousin,” she told him haughtily. She grabbed his arm none too gently and steered him through the crowds and out into the quieter entrance hall.

Once she had dragged him into a secluded alcove Sirius asked, “what’s all this about? I can’t remember doing anything terribly family shaming recently.”

“Your mere presence in a house filled with mudbloods and blood traitors is a shame on the family,” she sneered. Sirius cringed internally at her use of the slur, but kept his face carefully blank.

“Then why associate with me?”

“Because despite what you and your little friends like to think I’m not a slimy snake only fit for evil. Your brother has been trying to write to you, have you gotten any of his letters?”

“Reg has been writing to me?”

“Do you have another brother?”

“All right I get it, enough with the snark. I haven’t had a letter from home since Mother wrote to tell me what a disgrace I was back in the first week.”

“I thought as much, here.” And she thrust a letter into his hand. “For now Regulus’ letters to me are still getting sent, so until your parents cotton on you can communicate that way. Give me your reply tomorrow and I’ll send it with mine.”

“Thanks Cissy,” Sirius said quietly.

She nodded curtly and turned away, pausing just briefly to throw over her shoulder, “Don’t let anyone know. If anyone, and I mean anyone, even hints that I might be friendly towards you then this arrangement ends.”

Narcissa swept out of sight and Sirius made his way back to the Great Hall. He hoped he would be able to brush it off as family weirdness to his friends and they wouldn’t pry too deeply. He wasn’t quite ready to dig into that can of worms with them yet.

“What was that about?” Peter asked as Sirius sat back down

“She just wanted to tell me some family news, you know us Blacks - always the flare for the dramatic,” Sirius made himself laugh as he answered and was glad to see it seemed to work. Aside from a quietly curious look from James, no one seemed to think much of it and they all returned their focus to the food in front of them.

It wasn’t until he was hidden behind his curtains in his bed that evening that Sirius could take out the letter Narcissa had given him. He opened it with some trepidation, what would Regulus have to say about his only brother being a flaming red Gryffindor? Well, there was only one way to find out. Sirius began to read:

_ Narcissa- please give this to Sirius if you can? I’m not entirely sure he’s getting my letters, or at least I’m not getting any replies. _

_ Dear Sirius _

_ I’ve written to you three times so far and no reply yet. If you’re just busy with your new friends, fine don’t worry about it. _

_ But just in case Mother is behind this I thought I could try one more way to contact you before giving up. _

_ I miss you, things are very quiet here and my tutors work me even harder without you here to distract them with all your pranks. I haven’t tried pulling any of my own because I have no idea how to, and besides if I did then Mother might think I’m just as bad as you. Not that you’re bad, I don’t mean that exactly. Oh you know what I mean, you’re the trouble child - I mean you got sorted into Gryffindor for Merlin’s sake! You know exactly what I mean. _

_ Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying Hogwarts. How are your classes? _

_ Sincerely _

_ Regulus _

Sirius smiled to himself as he read the letter, hearing Regulus’ voice in his head as he imagined him writing it sitting at his little desk in his bedroom across from Sirius’ at the top of the stairs in Grimmauld Place. It was just like Regulus to ramble about meaningless nothings to Sirius. Sirius was pretty sure he was the only person who had ever gotten to see the rambly side of Regulus. He always worked so hard to appear sophisticated and befitting of the name of Black, except for when Sirius and he were alone or when Sirius managed to get him involved in some form of mischief making.

Sirius leant out of bed and grabbed a quill and paper off his nightstand to write a reply with.

_ Hi Reg _

_ I didn’t get any of your letters, I guess you didn’t get mine either. I sent one first week. The she-monster’s work I don’t doubt. I am the biggest disgrace in the history of our family after all. _

_ I miss you too! See you in a few months at Christmas, and keep writing to Cissy if you can. She’s promised to be a go between for as long as she can. That was a clever idea of yours to write to her instead of me (maybe you’ll end up in Ravenclaw and we can both be disgraces - kidding! I’m sure you’ll end up safely in the snake pit). _

_ I’m sorry about the tutors, maybe over Christmas I can help you plan some pranks to pull (just little ones if you’re worried about getting in trouble, wuss!). _

_ Hogwarts is the best! You’ll have so much fun when you come next year. Classes aren’t too bad, we get to do spells and things and my friend James and I have blown up a few things without even getting in trouble. My friend Remus is a genius prankster, you wouldn’t know it to look at him cos he’s all bookish and snooty but he’s so clever and he knows exactly what to do to make sure we don’t get caught for our pranks. Peter, my other friend, is pretty cool too, everyone in Gryffindor is really. I dunno about the Slytherins since they all hate me on principle but the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are pretty chill whenever we have classes together. _

_ See ya _

_ Sirius _

Once he’d finished, Sirius folded the letter neatly and tucked it into his robe pocket for tomorrow. He’d have to find an opportunity to subtly slip it to Narcissa to add to her own letter. He settled in for what he thought might be a better night’s sleep than he’d had in a while. For now, everyone he normally worried about seemed to be doing okay. Remus was back from his weird adventure in the hospital wing, Regulus hadn’t sided with the rest of the family after all, and even Narcissa turned out not to hate him as much as she pretended.

  
  


**James**

The debacle of Remus’ headache had provided James with a host of new experiences. Finally using the cloak for the first time had been incredibly exciting, and now that he’d used it he wanted to get it out all the time. The other new experience he wanted to repeat as soon as he could was having secret midnight meetings with Sirius. It would be great to sit and talk about all their silly ideas (and their less silly ones too), but in order to do this they were going to need to learn a silencing spell so they wouldn’t wake Remus up. James was confident Peter would snore his way through anything, but he had noticed over the last month that Remus was a very light sleeper combined with having a knack for hearing even the quietest sound. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Remus or Peter to join their conversations, but he was a bit worried about Remus not getting enough sleep and Madam Pomfrey stealing him again. And having time with just Sirius was fun, they could be silly together in a way the other two weren’t.

So the day after Remus came back James headed to the library after classes finished and began to search for a book that would teach him a silencing charm. He quickly realised that it wasn’t as straightforward as he’d thought it would be. He found a silencing charm quickly, but the book it was in said the spell would make the whole area silent, meaning no one could make any noise. It sounded good for sneaking around so James made a note of it, but it would be no use for holding conversations. Eventually he had to give up for the day and go find the other boys for dinner. They were curious about what he’d been doing for so long but he managed to convince them he’d just been looking for prank inspiration. He showed them the area silencing charm, and Sirius immediately wanted to use it in a class the next day. Remus agreed that it would be a good class prank, but thought they should wait till they had a class discussion or similar scheduled so it could have the most effect.

“If we can cast the spell right in the middle of someone saying something, we might get away with it. But we’ll have to be careful and prepared that we might still get caught,” Remus cautioned them.

“We should probably practice it in our dorm tonight so we’re ready,” Peter suggested.

“Hmm, maybe not in our dorm. What if it goes wrong and we’re stuck with a silent dorm forever,” James pointed out, internally worried that his plan for midnight chats would be ruined.

“Let’s find an empty classroom and practice in there,” Sirius said.

“Great idea, we can go tonight and use my cloak so no one knows we’re there.”

“Are you sure? I thought you wanted to save using the cloak for really important things,” Remus asked.

“Nah, it’s way too much fun not to use. You missed out being stuck in the hospital wing. We used it to come and try to visit you, but couldn’t get past Madam Pomfrey,” James told him. “I reckon it’s easily big enough for all of us to fit under together, do you guys think?” he added, tilting his head toward Peter and Sirius questioningly. They both nodded, and so Remus agreed to the late night escapade.

They finished up dinner and made their way upstairs to Gryffindor tower, along the way bumping into Frank Longbottom, Aidan Finch and Kiaan Patil, the other Gryffindor first year boys. Kiaan suggested they all play a game of exploding snap in the common room that evening, so after dropping their school bags in their dorms they all headed back downstairs. The seven boys had become comfortably friendly with each other but they had definitely split into two separate groups based on their dorms. James liked the other boys but didn’t think they quite had the mischievous streak of Sirius or Remus' mastermind prank planning skills. He caught himself thinking Peter was a bit more like the other group than their group, but quickly shut the thought down. Peter was one of them, and if he was a little quieter and more nervous for now that wasn’t a problem. He never said no to a prank or adventure, and he was absolutely definitely one of their group - James would hear no opposition to it,  _ even from his own brain _ he thought firmly to himself.

The game was a lot of fun, and ended in a mad tussle between Aidan and Sirius over whose card had caused the final explosion. James noticed Lily Evans and her friends staring over at them like they were a bunch of madmen, and compulsively he jumped up and threw himself into the tussle, causing even more mayhem. When he snuck another glance at Lily she had pure disgust on her face and was turning away to go up to her dorm. James snickered to himself and went back to wrestling his friends. A minute or so later one of the prefects came over and broke them up, sending them all to bed early for their antics. All seven of them walked upstairs together, saying their goodnight’s at the top of the stairs and heading into their separate dorms.

James insisted they had to wait till the common room quieted down a bit more before they snuck out, or they would risk bumping into people on their way through. The other boys agreed, but when Remus suggested they use the time to work on some homework Sirius laughed and said that was taking it too far. So Remus did his homework by himself and the other three planned their route through the castle, comparing ideas on where the caretaker Argus Filtch and the prefects were most likely to be patrolling.

After an hour James decided it was late enough and they could head off. They all pulled thick socks on to muffle their footsteps. This had been Peter’s suggestion and he was very proud of it, explaining “It’s how I always used to sneak downstairs for midnight snacks at home.”

They crept through the nearly empty common room and waited till no one was looking before opening the portrait hole and slipping through. The Lilac Lady looked around in confusion, huffed and went back to snoozing. The boys walked more boldly now they were out in the silent castle, and soon they had made their way to the abandoned classroom on the fifth floor without incident. They stepped inside and James pulled the cloak off them so they could spread out.

“Right, who’s going to try the spell first?” Sirius asked, his wand already in his hand hopefully.

“I think James should, since he found it,” Peter put in loyally, but James shook his head.

“It’s a charm, and we all know Remus is best at charms. Remus, how about you try and just silence that desk over there?”

“Are you sure James?” Remus asked. James nodded, so Remus pulled out his wand and took the piece of paper with the spell on it that James held out to him. He read it carefully then pointed his wand at the desk in the corner and said, “impercussus.” They all felt a woosh as the spell flew toward the desk, then nothing happened.

James hurried over and tapped on the desk with his knuckles. A very quiet sound came out, and Remus frowned a little sadly. “That was really close, good work Remus!” James said enthusiastically. He came back over to the others, and pointed his own wand towards a different desk, repeating Remus’ words and actions. Sirius checked this time, but James had done no better. The sound was quieter but not silent.

It took them three hours and two classrooms to finally master the spell fully. By the time they were done every desk and chair in the first classroom had been spelled multiple times, and they had successfully made the entire second classroom silent for a whole ten minutes before the spell wore off. They made their way back to Gryffindor tower tired but elated at their success. They had to poke the Lilac Lady to get her to wake up and she was very unimpressed but she let them inside and they hurried up to their dormitory to collapse into their beds.

The next morning James was first awake, as usual. He got dressed and let Weebles out into the dawn sky with a letter for his parents tied to her leg. Then he waited impatiently for the other three boys to groggily wake up. It took them longer than usual thanks to their late night adventures, and Peter in particular did not want to wake up. James convinced him by suggesting that if he didn’t get up now he would run the risk of missing out on breakfast. As it was they had to eat in a rush to make it to their first class on time, and since it was transfiguration they did not want to be late. Professor McGonagall was fierce about tardiness, and her friendliness with James’ family only made her harder on him at school. They made it in time thankfully, and Remus stopped them just outside the classroom to say, “Not this class, remember. We’re waiting for optimum chaos.” They all nodded their agreement and headed in to take their seats.

That afternoon, their opportunity came. They had potions with the Slytherins and Professor Slughorn had decided that today they would work in groups of four on a collaborative project. The class split off, and James, Sirius, Peter and Remus managed to get a table together. They grinned at each other, knowing without having to say anything that this would be their moment. They waited till the noise of talking students, clattering scales and chopping knives had reached a peak and then all four together subtly pointed their wand at different parts of the classroom and muttered “impercussus.” The effect was instantaneous and perfect. The whole room fell silent, though nothing else changed. Students kept trying to talk to each other, getting more and more confused as no noise came out of their mouths. Slughorn was waving his arms trying to get everyone’s attention, but they were all so distracted it wasn’t working.

Remus nudged James and showed him their potions book, with the recipe for today’s potion on display. The four boys began working as best they could without talking, using gestures and touch to indicate what each would do. Slughorn seemed unable to work out a counter charm, and so by the time their spells wore off twenty minutes had passed and the class had dissolved into a mix of chaos and students desperately trying to work with the silence. Lily Evans and Severus Snape would probably have done well if it weren't for the fact they had been paired with two very bossy Slytherins who didn’t follow direction under the best of circumstances. When noise returned, the majority of the class cheered loudly, while a small number grumbled their displeasure at the whole situation. Snape was among those grumbling, and his face looked awful.

Due to a mix of luck and comradery the four boys had managed a half decent potion, and Sirius was able to complete the required spellwork now that he could speak again. To their surprise, this earned them top marks in the class, and a commendation from Slughorn for working well in a crisis.

As soon as they were out of the class and on their way upstairs the boys burst into hysterical laughter. “Working well in a crisis!” Sirius wheezed, bent over double trying to catch his breath.

“And you told us we should be prepared for detention Remus, hah!” James crowed. Remus could only laugh, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Our best prank yet boys,” James said, once they had recovered themselves enough to head to their final class for the day. He was incredibly pleased with how well the whole thing had gone really. They had had a fun adventure under the cloak, learnt a new spell successfully without help from a teacher, and performed a flawless prank that actually earned them points rather than getting them in trouble. He also weirdly agreed with Slughorn that they had proved they could work well in a crisis. All right, perhaps it wasn’t a totally fair situation as they had an advantage over the rest of the class in knowing what was going on, but they had worked very well together to get their potion done. They hadn’t broken down in tears like Mary MacDonald, or whacked each other round the head like Avery and Mulciber. They had calmly gotten on with the task at hand and had managed to communicate with each other very effectively without words. They hadn’t even planned ahead for that part of the prank.

They spent the rest of the day sneaking grins at each other, and ended the night with a celebratory pillow fight that ended with them sleeping in a mad pile on the floor of their dormitory. The final cherry on top was when a half-asleep Sirius smiled over at James from the other side of Remus and mouthed, “BEST. DAY. EVER.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who continues to read, kudos and comment! I love hearing what you think of the story, and especially your input on things you'd like to see happen for the characters. I am keeping a record of suggestions and will try to include whichever I can that don't directly contradict my own plans.
> 
> There may be a bit a delay in posting next week's chapter as I'm moving this weekend and as I haven't got a backlog of chapters currently I'm gonna struggle to find the time to write (I also work full time). I'll do my best to get something up, though it may be short or a couple of days late.


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